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Qantas Young Socceroos held by Singapore

The Qantas Young Socceroos have been held to a scoreless draw by Singapore in their third match of the AFC U-22 Championship Qualifiers in Pekanbaru, Indonesia.

The Qantas Young Socceroos have been held to a scoreless draw by Singapore in their third match of the AFC U-22 Championship Qualifiers in Pekanbaru, Indonesia.

Again Qantas Young Socceroos head coach Paul Okon made a number of changes to the starting line-up to rest his players due to the grueling schedule of 5 matches in 11 days.

The first half was a dour struggle played in hot and overcast conditions. Singapore played very deep and made it difficult for the Qantas Young Socceroos to create any meaningful scoring opportunities.

Just before half-time, the Qantas Young Socceroos were dealt a significant blow when captain Terry Antonis was sent off in dubious circumstances.

Antonis seemed to be pushed by a Singaporean player, but the referee was on opposite side of the pitch, and didn-t see the incident but turned around and sent the Australian off for no discernible reason.

With a man down going into the break, Paul Okon was forced to reshuffle his formation making two changes at half-time with Jake Barker-Daish and Reece Caira replaced by Nick Fitzgerald and Yianni Perkatis.

The second half saw the game start to open up and Fitzgerald immediately made an impact creating attacking runs and scoring opportunities.

The Qantas Young Socceroos dominated the majority of proceedings, but were unable to get a clear shot on goal due to the stoic Singaporean defence.

With three minute remaining in regulation time, Singaporean substitute Muhammad Farhan Bin Rahmat was sent off for a late tackle on Fitzgerald.

From then on the Singaporean players tried to delay the game which prompted the Bahraini referee to signal six minutes of additional time.

With the player numbers back to being equal, the Qantas Young Socceroos made a final push to pressure the opposition, but again were unable to find a goal.

Okon was frustrated by the manner in which the match was played but focused on the challenge of the next match against Timor Leste.

“As expected again we came up against a team that only had the intention to sit deep and limit any possible scoring opportunities from us,” said Okon.

“On a bumpy pitch it was difficult to play the type of football we wanted to and it was disappointing to lose Terry Antonis, which made the task even harder.

“We now turn our attention to the next match, our goal coming here was to qualify for the finals of this competition and we are working hard to achieve that,” concluded Okon.